Law Commons^™

Thawing Out: The Role Of The Arctic Council Service In A Melting Arctic, Taylor J. Enos

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

With the changing natural and political climate of the Arctic, conflicts over resource extraction and navigation will become inevitable. Empowering an intergovernmental institution like the Arctic Council Service may be the only solution. This paper analyzes the importance and history of the Arctic as a political environment, which is prone to abuse in the very near future at the hands of Russia and the United States.

Legal Personhood In More's Utopia, Andreea Boboc

UTOPIA500

The third UTOPIA500 presentation was Feb. 25, 2016. Dr. Andreea D. Boboc, English professor in the College of the Pacific, received an official "Me and Tommy More" polo shirt from McGeorge's Dean Francis J. Mootz III. She then spoke about Legal Personhood in More's Utopia. A published scholar of medieval English literature, Dr. Boboc explored how the fluidity and multiple jurisdictional levels of law in late medieval England shaped personhood. She had a compelling and provocative interchange with the Law and Literature students.

Transforming News: How Mediation Principles Can Depolarize Public Talk, Carol Pauli

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

News media interviews bring opposing voices into the public forum where, ideally, audience members can deliberate and reach democratic compromise. But in today's politically polarized atmosphere, partisans increasingly accuse each other of being a threat to the country, and prospects for compromise have suffered. Journalists have been urged to take a more affirmative role, promoting problem solving and opposing conflict. They have stopped short, citing professional norms that demand a stance of neutral detachment. This article turns to the principles of transformative mediation. Like journalism, it is detached from any goal of settlement. It aims instead at increasing the capacity …

February 21, 2016: So How Come Trump Is Still Around?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “So How Come Trump is Still Around?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

February 16, 2016:Does The Constitution Protect The Right To Have More Than One Child?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Does the Constitution Protect the Right to Have More than One Child?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

February 14, 2016: Was Scalia A Great Justice?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Was Scalia a Great Justice?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

More’S Utopia And Income Insecurity, Daniel J. Morrissey

UTOPIA500

The second UTOPIA500 presentation was Feb. 11, 2016. Daniel J. Morrissey, Professor of Law and Dean emeritus at Gonzaga University School of Law, received an official "Me and Tommy More" polo shirt from Dr. Malloy at the beginning of the talk. Professor Morrissey then spoke about More's Utopia and Income Inequality. A published scholar of corporate securities law and jurisprudence, Professor Morrissey identified legal, political, and moral issues about social and economic inequality in late medieval England, as reflected in More's Utopia, and discussed the continuing relevance of those issues today. He sparked an animated discussion with the Law and …

February 10, 2016: Is Trump Back? No. But What About Clinton?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Is Trump Back? No. But What About Clinton?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

February 3, 2016: Is Trump Going To Be The Gop Nominee?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Is Trump Going to be the GOP Nominee?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

King V. Burwell: Where Were The Tax Professors?, Andy S. Grewal

Pepperdine Law Review

King v. Burwell drew unusually wide attention for a tax case. Members of the public, the mainstream media, health care professionals, Washington think tanks, and constitutional, administrative, and health law professors, to name a few groups, all debated the merits of the challengers’ arguments. Everyone, it seems, had something to say about the case — except tax professors. This contribution to Pepperdine Law Review’s Tax Law Symposium explores three potential reasons for the tax professoriate’s reticence. It concludes that none of those reasons withstand scrutiny, and going forward, tax professors should play a more active role in cases like this.

Book Review Of "Versions Of Academic Freedom" By Stanley Fish, Michael Robertson

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

January 30, 2016: Journalism Under Attach—Again, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Journalism Under Attach—Again“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

January 27, 2016: The End Of Trump, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The End of Trump“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

January 27, 2016: Don’T Fight Mistrust; Deepen It, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Don’t Fight Mistrust; Deepen It“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Utopia And The Law And Literature Movement, Michael P. Malloy

UTOPIA500

Dr. Malloy kicked off the UTOPIA500 project with a presentation on Jan. 21, 2016. His paper, Utopia and the Law and Literature Movement, marked the quincentennial of the publication of Thomas More's novel Utopia in 1516. Dr. Malloy explored the meaning and implications of the concepts of utopia and dystopia. He argued, with colorful graphic support, that More's novel was a precursor to post-modernist literature, and that in our own time there has been a linguistic transformation of the concept of utopia to contemporary meanings that are often entirely independent of More's novel. Dr. Malloy concluded that More's novel is …

January 17, 2016: The Push Back Against Ending Campaign Contribution Limits, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Push Back Against Ending Campaign Contribution Limits“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

January 9, 2016: Lessons From New York, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Lessons from New York“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

January 2, 2017: This Is What Happens When You Vote Republican, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “This is What Happens When You Vote Republican“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

The Threat Of Independent Political Spending To Democratic Life—And A Plan To Stop It, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

Keeping Cases From Black Juries: An Empirical Analysis Of How Race, Income Inequality, And Regional History Affect Tort Law, Donald G. Gifford, Brian Jones

Faculty Scholarship

This Article presents an empirical analysis of how race, income inequality, the regional history of the South, and state politics affect the development of tort law. Beginning in the mid-1960s, most state appellate courts rejected doctrines such as contributory negligence that traditionally prevented plaintiffs’ cases from reaching the jury. We examine why some, mostly Southern states did not join this trend.

To enable cross-state comparisons, we design an innovative Jury Access Denial Index (JADI) that quantifies the extent to which each state’s tort doctrines enable judges to dismiss cases before they reach the jury. We then conduct a multivariate analysis …

The Five Days In June When Values Died In American Law, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

Liberal, Conservative, And Political: The Supreme Court's Impact On The American Family In The Uber-Partisan Era, Marsha B. Freeman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Health Care And The Myth Of Self-Reliance, Nicole Huberfeld, Jessica L. Roberts

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

King v. Burwell asked the Supreme Court to decide if, in providing assistance to purchase insurance “through an Exchange established by the State,” Congress meant to subsidize policies bought on the federally run exchange. With its ruling, the Court saved the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s low-income subsidy. But King is only part of a longer, more complex story about health care access for the poor. In a move toward universal coverage, two pillars of the ACA facilitate health insurance coverage for low-income Americans, one private and one public: (1) the subsidy and (2) Medicaid expansion. Although both have …

#Advocacy: Social Media Activism's Power To Transform Law, Stacey B. Steinberg

UF Law Faculty Publications

Attorneys influence the actions of legislators, courts, and community leaders by working alongside social movements. Together, these advocates seek to challenge the status quo by setting precedent that will ensure equality and justice for all individuals. While social movements often use social media to convey their message or to gather support for their cause, many attorneys are unfamiliar with leveraging this powerful new technology.

Social media platforms provide a low-cost, fast, and easy-to-use tool that effectively disseminates information and helps advocates garner support for their cause. However, some social change advocates, including lawyers and policymakers, are hesitant to get involved …

Separations Of Wealth: Inequality And The Erosion Of Checks And Balances, Kate Andrias

Articles

American government is dysfunctional: Gridlock, filibusters, and expanding presidential power, everyone seems to agree, threaten our basic system of constitutional governance. Who, or what, is to blame? In the standard account, the fault lies with the increasing polarization of our political parties. That standard story, however, ignores an important culprit: Concentrated wealth and its organization to achieve political ends. The only way to understand our current constitutional predicament—and to rectify it—is to pay more attention to the role that organized wealth plays in our system of checks and balances. This Article shows that the increasing concentration of wealth and political …

Why Tax Wealth Transfers?: A Philosophical Analysis, Jennifer Bird-Pollan

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The one-hundredth anniversary of the estate tax provides an ideal moment to reflect on the role of wealth transfer taxation in the larger scheme of the U.S. tax system. Wealth and income inequality are at historically high levels, and the responses to these issues are often reduced to a simplistic political dichotomy of “right” versus “left.” The multitude of views of the American people cannot be reduced to such simple generalities without losing important nuances. This Article identifies three general categories of political philosophical viewpoints that are commonly endorsed by both politicians and everyday Americans, and then examines the current …

Utilitarianism And Wealth Transfer Taxation, Jennifer Bird-Pollan

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article is the third in a series examining the continued relevance and philosophical legitimacy of the United States wealth transfer tax system from within a particular philosophical perspective. The article examines the utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill and his philosophical progeny and distinguishes the philosophical approach of utilitarianism from contemporary welfare economics, primarily on the basis of the concept of "utility" in each approach. After explicating the utilitarian criteria for ethical action, the article goes on to think through what Mill's utilitarianism says about the taxation of wealth and wealth transfers, the United States federal wealth transfer tax system …

Political Dysfunction And The Election Of Donald Trump: Problems Of The U.S. Constitution's Presidency, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

In this article, Professor Orentlicher examines the Constitution's design for the executive branch. He argues that by opting for a single executive rather than a multi-person executive, the Constitution causes two serious problems-it fuels the high levels of partisan polarization that we see today, and it increases the likelihood of misguided presidential decision making. Drawing on the experience in other countries with executive power shared by multiple officials, he proposes a bipartisan executive.

A New Proposal To Address Local Voting Discrimination, Cody Gray

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Politics At Work After Citizens United, Ruben J. Garcia

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

There are seismic changes going on in the political system. The United States Supreme Court has constitutionalized the concentration of political power in the “one percent” in several recent decisions, including Citizens United v. FEC. At the same time, unions are representing a shrinking share of the workforce, and their political power is also being diminished. In order for unions to recalibrate the balance of political power at all, they must collaborate with grassroots community groups, as they have done in several recent campaigns. There are, however, various legal structures that make coordination between unions and nonunion groups difficult, …